Highlights

The tigress from Chandrapur walked for 76 days, crossing the NH6 twice, to return to Bor Tiger Reserve.

During its journey back, it is believed to have survived mostly on cattle and small prey, and also made two human kills.

Given its human kills, it now faces death by bullets or a life in captivity.

Nagpur: Chased by a hunter and having a radio collar that constantly gave away its location, the problem tigress of Brahmapuri not only dodged death but also covered an astonishing 500 kms since its release in Bor Tiger Reserve.

In the 76 days since its release on July 29 it traversed through fields and forests, streams and hillocks, marshy patches and tall grasses, negotiated several roads, and crossed the busy 4-lane NH6 twice, only to now return to Bor. During these days it is believed to have survived mostly on cattle and small prey, and also made two human kills. It was tracked all through by a team of foresters. In later days, the team included an experienced hunter with an order to kill it.

Unknown to it, its future is being argued in high court here, its fate very much in balance with a verdict expected on Thursday. One thing is clear, the remarkable odyssey of the young tigress through central Indian landscape will be its last. After its human kills, it faces death by bullets or a life in captivity.

Wardha

The exercise to monitor was perhaps the biggest in the country for a problem tigress. It is still going on. The tigress was captured on July 10 from South Brahmapuri because it was prone to attacking human beings. It was released in a patch of Bor that had no other tigers on July 29 in fond hope it would find enough prey not to kill humans and make the forest its home.

A few days after its release in relocated Navargaon village in Bor, the restless tigress moved out. Tigers are long-ranging animals known to travel hundreds of kilometres. But maybe owing to destruction of corridors or poor prey base in areas it went to, the T27-C1 as it is technically named, returned to Bor.

Kishor Rithe, member of state-level committee that had okayed its release, said, “Big cats have a tendency to return to their home. It was same with iconic tiger Jai (now missing but likely dead) too. But it hardly has any meaning for this tigress now as tranquillizing/shoot orders have been issued.”

Still its journey has been captivating. It has evaded the monitoring team in vehicles and elephant backs as well as avoided other humans near villages. Though it killed two people and injured one in chance encounters, it never allowed a good shot at itself even to an experienced hunter. “We used JCBs and tractors and did everything possible to capture it,” said a senior official.

Experts do not see this journey as dispersal. Wildlife biologist Milind Pariwakam said, “Movement of tigers being chased by humans may not be seen as natural dispersal behaviour. In such cases, it is responding to capture operations and may be ‘driven’ to newer locations.”

Aditya Joshi, head of conservation research, Wildlife Conservation Trust (WCT), agreed it was not a natural dispersal movement. He still found the way the tigress negotiated the human dominated areas remarkable. It pointed towards importance of maintaining large contiguous forest blocks so negative human-wildlife interactions could be avoided, he said.

“It was expected the tigress would move towards Melghat or Madhya Pradesh, but there was no connectivity,” said Prafulla Bhamburkar, Central India in-charge of Wildlife Trust of India (WTI).

“Its journey proves tiger corridors are broken. It crossed hurdles like highways and rivers but when it reached Warud (in Amravati district), there was no way forward and hence reversed course,” said a tiger scientist from Wildlife Institute of India (WII), Dehradun.

Nature lover Uddham Singh from tiger-bearing Katlabodi forest also said, “This is the result of failure to save corridors.”

At times, intensive monitoring proved an irritation for the tigress. Crackers were burst to shoo it away from humans into Dhaga forest in Wardha division. It remained in Dhaga for a long time raising hopes it was settling down. Forest officials said it hunted wild boar only in Dhaga. At all other places, it attacked domestic animals like cattle or goat.

In its original habitat at Brahmapuri, the tigress was known for lifting cattle, an easy prey. It attacked humans when they entered territorial forests. It has a tendency eat 7-8 kg meat from a kill and move on. It was not expected stay in Bor for long despite good prey base there.

“We hope it settles down,” said a senior forester raising slim hopes of its survival, “but we fear other tigers will push it out. The 138 sqkm Bor already has five tigers. There are many villages nearby and it shouldn’t pose a danger to them,” he said.

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